D:Fuse & Joy

Meet DJ D:Fuse. He's from Texas, but he's no Country and Western cowboy. He's not spinning generic raver-trance either, whatever the pseudonym might suggest. In fact, D:Fuse could slot neatly alongside classy, top-flight Euro-jocks with more down-to-earth names. Guys like Dave Seaman, who included "Feel" (which D:Fuse recorded with Shane Howard as Expansion) on his polished Buenos Aires edition of the Global Underground series.

For the DJ with humble origins in the small Austin, Texas trance scene, it must have been quite an honor to be featured on one of the club world's highest-profile DJ mixes, but D:Fuse had already been making waves for some time. In '97 D:Fuse created Sunday Massive as an outlet for his own spinning and that of other local jocks. Over time, his efforts paid off, as he graduated to playing alongside names like DJ Icey and eventually his own headline sets. In '99, Moonshine handed him the task of reviving the Psychotrance imprint, focused on bedfellows like Underworld'sDarren Emerson, Scotland's techno funksters Slam, and some lesser-known talent.

On Psychotrance 2001, D:Fuse's "You Got It" with Joy and his remix of Hamel's "Perspective" with Shane Howard are funky-techno stompers that reveal his rave-scene roots. They've got bounce and solid, no-frills beats. Over all, though, his track selection reflects the uncluttered, groove-driven style currently favored by the likes of Sasha and John Digweed, along with many other big-name European DJs: the kind of trance that features subtle vocal cuts, stripped-down, moodier tracks, and less of the overblown hysteria that sometimes gives trance a bad name. More progressive than psycho.